Upswing Poker Lab Review 2026: Study Tools & Charts Tested

Last Updated on August 28, 2026 by Bala Kumar

If you’ve searched “upswing poker” or “upswing lab review” recently, you’ve probably noticed the brand has changed a lot since the Doug Polk and Ryan Fee days. We dug through the current lineup,  Lab 2.0, the preflop chart tools, the GTO trainer, and current pricing, to give you an honest, up-to-date breakdown of whether it’s worth your study budget.

What Is Upswing Poker?

Upswing Poker is one of the longest-running names in poker education. It was founded in 2015 by Doug Polk, Ryan Fee, and Matt Colletta, and grew from a blog offering free preflop charts into one of the largest poker training operations in the industry. The current coaching lineup spans Doug Polk, Uri Peleg, Gary Blackwood, and Nick Petrangelo, along with contributors like Dylan Weisman, Jake Abdalla, and Fabian Adler, teaching everything from No-Limit Hold’em to PLO, mixed games, heads-up, and short deck.

Lab 2.0: The Flagship Product

The original “Upswing Poker Lab” — the course most people are still searching for — has been rebuilt from the ground up. The flagship product is now Lab 2.0, led by coach Uri Peleg, a high-stakes player and staking leader behind Guerrilla Poker. It replaced the original Lab that featured Doug Polk and Ryan Fee as the primary instructors.

A few things stood out when we tested the structure:

• Adaptive placement. Lab 2.0 isn’t a static video library. It opens with a placement quiz that starts you at the right level, so you’re not re-watching fundamentals you’ve already mastered.
• Scale. One independent breakdown counted 815 structured files spread across 12 core sections — covering core poker math and equity, preflop charts and sizing frameworks, postflop concepts like SPR and blockers, and solver-based GTO principles alongside exploitative adjustments.
• Community. Members get access to a private Discord server and a blog-style progress-tracking section where coaches actually respond, functioning like a modern, more responsive version of the old poker forums.

The Study Tools We Actually Tested

This is the part most reviews skim past. Here’s what’s inside the toolkit beyond the video lessons:

1. Preflop Charts (Preflop Prodigy App)

Lab 2.0 ships with preflop charts for every common game type, delivered through Upswing’s Preflop Prodigy app. Chart depth has historically been one of Upswing’s strongest assets — an earlier iteration of the Lab included a module with roughly 439 hand range charts covering online cash games, live poker, and tournaments, backed by a companion mobile app for iOS and Android. The caveat every reviewer repeats still holds: these charts aren’t meant to be copied literally, since every real hand needs adjustment for player type, stack depth, and history.

2. Lucid Poker (GTO Training App)

Upswing’s own GTO trainer app sits in their tools menu alongside the courses, giving members a way to drill spots interactively rather than just watch theory passively.

3. PLO Trainer & PLO Matrix Preflop Tool

For Omaha players, Upswing runs a dedicated PLO Trainer Tool (currently in beta) and a separate PLO Matrix preflop range tool.

4. Solver-Based Modules

Rather than teaching “perfect theory” in isolation, the current curriculum blends structured fundamentals with solver-based learning and practical exploitative strategy — a mix aimed at players who want theory grounded in real adjustments.

Pricing: What It Actually Costs

Lab 2.0 is sold as a monthly membership at $99/month, with meaningful discounts for longer commitments: $399 for six months or $699 for a full year. There’s no free trial, but Upswing backs new members with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

For context against the rest of the poker-study market:

Tool	Entry Price	Best For
Upswing Lab 2.0	$99/mo ($699/yr)	Structured Hold’em curriculum + coaching community
GTO Wizard	Starter $39/mo · Premium $99/mo · Elite $169/mo · Ultra $229/mo+	Massive pre-solved library, cash-game depth
GTO LAB	Basic tier around $25/mo	MTT-specific solver study
DEEPFOLD PRO	~$19/mo	AI hand review, budget-friendly volume study

How It Compares to GTO Wizard

This is the comparison most searchers actually want, since the two names come up together constantly.

GTO Wizard is the market leader in poker study tools by scope, with a solution library that’s grown past 10 million pre-solved game trees and instant lookup across cash games, MTTs, Spin & Go, heads-up SNGs, and PKO study. That said, breadth comes with a catch: a Starter-tier subscriber can only study one game format at a time — cash, MTT, or SNG — not all three simultaneously without upgrading.

The philosophical difference matters more than the feature list. GTO Wizard is library- and solver-first — an enormous repository of pre-solved spots you explore largely on your own. Upswing’s Lab 2.0 sits closer to the coaching-and-curriculum end of the spectrum: it’s built to walk you through a guided path with an instructor’s point of view, rather than hand you a raw database to mine yourself.

What Independent Reviewers Are Saying

Opinions on Upswing have shifted over the years, and it’s worth showing both sides rather than just the marketing angle:

• Bullish take: Among poker training sites, the Lab still ranks highly as one of the more comprehensive courses for players newer to No-Limit Hold’em, combining written lessons, videos, and a large preflop chart library across dozens of learning modules.
• Skeptical take: At least one veteran small-stakes pro no longer recommends the Lab for serious players, arguing there are now better-value training options on the market at a lower price point.
• Segment-specific take: A broader 2026 comparison of poker training apps suggests skipping Upswing Lab specifically if you’re a live MTT specialist, since the content leans cash-game heavy — and recommends beginners under roughly 5,000 hands played start with free resources before paying for any premium tool.

Who Should Actually Buy Lab 2.0?

Good fit if you:

• Want a structured, guided curriculum rather than an open-ended solver database
• Play mostly No-Limit Hold’em cash games
• Value coaching community and accountability (Discord, progress tracking)
• Are early-to-mid stakes and want charts plus theory bundled together

Look elsewhere if you:

• Primarily play MTTs (a specialist tool like GTO LAB, or GTO Wizard’s tournament tier, fits better)
• Already have a strong GTO foundation and want raw solver depth over guided lessons
• Are on a tight budget with under 5,000 hands of experience (start free first)
• Play PLO as your main game (Upswing’s PLO tools are newer and less built-out than its Hold’em content)

Final Verdict

Upswing Poker’s brand recognition is well-earned, and Lab 2.0’s rebuild,  adaptive placement, a genuine coaching roster led by Uri Peleg, and hundreds of organized study files, makes it a legitimate structured-learning option for Hold’em players. It’s not a one-size-fits-all study tool, though. If your focus is tournaments or you want solver-first depth, pair it with (or lean toward) GTO Wizard or a specialist tool instead. If you want a guided path with charts, drills, and a coaching community bundled together, Lab 2.0 remains one of the more complete packages currently on the market.

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